Virtue of Shadows
by DragonRaiderBlood
Summary: Dishonored from his village, Kai enthralls himself deep into the conspiracy of the plot against the White Fang. With only a note to guide him, Naruto must locate Kai, as they both enthrall each other into the past of ANBU, in the effort to save the village from the Akatsuki, and the previous terrors of the past.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto**

**Chapter 1**

_"No, you don't understand. To be a killer is to be killed, every day. Another thrust of the kunai, another part of the soul withers. Blade. Soul. Death. Soul. Until you lose all ability to feel because it hurts so much. It's not pretty, it's not poetic, and it is certainly not something to be romanticized. If you're lucky, you get a strapping young hero to come in time to save the world, and in doing so, save yourself. If you're not lucky, you keep doing what you do, crazed, obsessed, until you're damned beyond recognition or repair, cold and condemned. It's your poison. It's your medicine." He drew a deep, shuddering breath as they began to strap that man down, his own eyes trailing at the man's eyes. "You were too late. There's nothing you can do to me now that I haven't already done to myself."_

* * *

The old man's words played hard inside his mind, locking inside his brain as he felt sick inside. His black eyes looked longing as he sat in silence in front of the grave stone. The cold memories flooded back as he stood up and moved on.

His leather sandals drew heavy across the earth, rolling steadily in time until he got to the training grounds. The familiar shades of green, rolled across the grounds as stray kunai lay gone across the ground. Shattered earth, bloody stumps, traces of various water molecules. That what it meant to be a shinobi to him. To train up, to protect the village till the day you die.

He knew what he had to do, what he had to do for his fallen friend, what he had to do for the Village, even if it meant becoming the enemy. He hated that feeling that was running through his veins, the twisted feeling inside.

The village had been in chaos since Lord Third's battle with Orochimaru, he figured it was just a matter of time before he was being suspected of being watched. He already figured members of the ANBU were watching his every movement and being reported to the Council of Elders, to Danzo.

"_Why didn't you help him_, _when he needed you the most,_" a voice asked inside of him as a familiar sight lay before him through the trees. A man at the memorial stone for the fallen shinobi of the Leaf, the famed Copy Cat ninja, Kakashi Hatake. He was dressed in the usual flak jacket, and standard trousers, that matched his own uniform. Kakashi's hands were in his pockets as he stared gloomily at the stone.

"So you still come here Kakashi-san?" he heard his voice say, as he moved himself towards the shinobi before him. Legs carrying themselves on their own, as he cracked a smile in front of the younger man.

Kakashi turned around, his eye lightening up slightly as he turned around again to see the stone once more. He felt more edgy as he came closer to the stone, the stone that held so many of his fallen allies.

"I still don't get why you are always late," as he made their usual conversation."You should get up earlier, the young genin might be getting impatient with your road." Kakashi made no movement as silence fell between them.

"You're lucky that your sentence didn't extend to death," Kakashi said in a sad monotone voice, "Those who abandon a mission…"

"Are normally put to death immediately," he mumbled "I know, though it took the old man's suicide for that to finally go." Silence fell again as a slight eerie tension fell between them. None of the two jonin talked as he crouched down and touched a name on the stone. He cracked a smile slightly as he felt slightly at peace, turning round he put both of his hands in his pockets.

"I need you to promise me something," he asked Kakashi looked raised an eyebrow, the promises he made normally got broken.

"What is it?" Kakashi said, his voice tinged with slight regret. He didn't blame him though, he was a dishonoured shinobi, a man who shouldn't even be alive.

"Don't let the Council of Elders control how this village is run," Kakashi looked concerned with his eye as his own eyes looked sadly on to the horizon, the sun slowly rolling down slowly.

"Kai," Kakashi began to say then went silent. "I have to go, my students need help. Goodbye, Kai," He nodded as the jonin disappeared in a fluff of smoke, leaving Kai alone.

Kai laughed slightly, tingling sensations began to run throughout his body. He took off his headband which once stood proudly on his forehead, he wiped off a bead of sweat as he took out a silver kunai. It glinted in the sunlight's rays as it began to glow white. Pure white as sparks fell from either side.

"White light chakra," he mumbled as he put the headband on the ground and stared at it.

"_Kai, that chakra is a special kind of chakra. Be good to it," his sensei, his mentor, his ally, his friend. The white haired, white chakra, Sannin level Sensei, Sakumo Hatake._

"This is for you sensei," his hand smashed through the head band, shattering it into a million pieces, driving the kunai straight into the soil, leaving a slight crater of crushed rocks as he retracted the kunai, shaking the soil as it landed in a heap. His eyes widened a fraction as he bent down, and took out a letter from his back pocket. "For the village." He drew his head low as his eyes filled with determination. "Time to join the enemy." As he disappeared in a puff of smoke

_Three years later_

"Kai," Tsunade looked at his last report, it was of simple hand writing as it was a report of the assassination of some leader of a clan, Tsuande has never heard of. She clucked her tongue as she threw it on her desk, his disappearance was a blow to the Hidden Leaf's command, well the command who still respected him. He had long been a disowned ninja, but still, his lost was a blow to those who still cared.

She carefully took out the last note he had ever wrote, she looked at it sadly as she tossed it with his profile.

"Lady Tsunade!" Shizune ran into her office, her breath came ragged as she bent over to catch her breath.

"What is it Shizune?" Tsunade demanded off her.

"It's about Kai Inuzuka," Shizune said as she regained her stance, her breath coming back to normal, Tsunade raised an eyebrow at her as she looked at the profile to her side.

"What do you mean?" Tsunade barked at her, Shizune shifting slightly back as Tsunade tightened her fists together.

"He's alive, but…." Shizune trailed her voice as she couldn't meet the stare of her sensei, driving Tsunade mad.

"But?"

"He is an active member of the Akatsuki," Tsunade's eyes widened a fraction as she couldn't control her anger, deep hidden anger boiled insider her, she suddenly smashed her fist against the table, it splintered into a thousand pieces, sparks of wood flying everywhere as Shizune looked scared at her sensei. Tsunade clenched her fist tight as she waited for the deep rage within to subside. Sore knuckled felt numb as she glanced at Kai's profile.

"How do you know this?" Tsunade asked as her inner rage subsided into anger.

"Because, Naruto saw him with his own eyes, a man who could bend white chakra from his hands and redirect it as a single form of jutsu, a powerful form of jutsu. Who else has that form of white light chakra? Sakura and Kakashi confirmed seeing a man of what Naruto subscribed."

"I must speak with Naruto at once." Tsunade ordered quickly.

"Yes, milady," Shizune rushed out of the room, leaving Tsunade to think. She gazed at the profile with haste as she sat down on her chair, the desk forever in a pile of rubble.

"So why are you with an organization that wishes to collect the tail beasts?" Tsunade asked the profile as if asking a human being, "What are you hiding Kai? Where are you hiding?"

* * *

Kai looked out with a grim look on his face, he was on top of a ragged, rocky ice cold mountain that faced out a forest, he could hear the cursed shouts of The Hidden Village Sand ANBU shinobi below him as he sighed. He looked behind him to find Deidara droning about art and explosions as usual. It had been like this, ever since he joined, the usual hatred since Kisame and Itachi's appearance in the Leaf.

"We have the one tails in our possession," Deidara smiled as he walked beside Kai, who lazily looked at him. "Now eight left to go."

"We lost the nine tailed brat," Kai snarled at him, Deidara simply smiled, "You are lucky the Copy Cat ninja of the Leaf only took your arm and didn't suck you in, into that hellhole of nothingness for a jutsu, powerful enough to destroy the Hidden village, though I guess I wouldn't really mind considering you."

Deidara clutched his stump and clucked his tongue. "You wound me, but true art is an explosion." Suddenly the forest below, turned into a fiery grave, as he heard the distant cries of shinobi as he watched the forest, so lush and green, turn into a red explosion of passion. Kai groaned as his ears started to ring loudly.

"Art, depends on what you mean. True art, can be as silent as a dog," Deidara jumped as a dog ran past him, it snarled angrily, white hair on edge as red eyes looked furiously at him. Kai stood up and laughed, "We are on the hunt for Jinchuriki, not for the blood of the Sand." The dog retreated to his side, it kept on death staring Deidara as Kai glared at the dog. "Let's go," Kai began to walk off into the scrub of the other side as Deidara grumbled, and followed him.

'_The time is now sensei,' _Kai thought as he looked up in the cold moonlight, the mystery and pain behind his eyes was masked by an evil smile which satisfied his anger, he twisted the ring around his finger, the ring that proved he was a member, he looked down as the black coat with red clouds, the same uniform he remembered, _'The time is now.'_

**End of chapter**

**How did everyone find that chapter? Hope you enjoyed the chapter and review. See you next time. **


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